Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, left, the hero US Airways pilot who guided a flight to safety into the Hudson River on Jan. 15, received the keys to New York City from Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Monday at City Hall in Manhattan.

The "Miracle on Hudson" flight crew received keys to the city Monday from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg who called them "five real American heroes" who lived up to an ideal that everyone in the city aspires to.

Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the hero pilot who safely guided the powerless jet into the Hudson River last month, also got a special present from the mayor — a copy of the book, Just Culture, which Sullenberger had checked out of the Fresno State library and left on the plane.

"We didn't know if you ever got a chance to finish the book," to which Sullenberger laughed that he hadn't.

In his first major itnerview Sunday with 60 Minutes he talked about how he had sleepless nights second-guessing whether he could have done more to avert the near disaster aboard US Airways Flight 1549.

"One of the hardest things for me to do in this whole experience was to forgive myself for not having done something else. Something better. Something more complete," Sullenberger said in the interview.

Sullenberger, a 29-year airline pilot, never explained in the interview what more he could have done. But he said that the responsibility he felt for the lives of the people on the jet has weighed heavily on him.

"The first few nights were the worst," he said. "When the 'what-ifs' started. The second-guessings would come. Made sleep hard."

During the ordeal, Sullenberger, 58, displayed the steely self-confidence that befits a former fighter pilot from the Air Force Academy.

In the moments after a flock of large birds snuffed out the Airbus A320's two engines, blanketing the cockpit with an eerie silence, Capt. Sullenberger took control of the jet from co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles, 49. For 3½ minutes, they desperately tried to restart the engines and find a safe place to land.

"The physiological reaction I had to this was strong, and I had to force myself to use my training and force calm on the situation," Sullenberger said.

Once he picked the Hudson as the only suitable place to put down, Sullenberger said he didn't doubt he could bring the plane down safely.

"I was sure I could do it," he said. "I think, in many ways, as it turned out, my entire life up to that moment had been a preparation to handle that particular moment."

The three flight attendants — Sheila Dail, 57, Doreen Welsh, 58, and Donna Dent, 51 — also offered their first public glimpse into the passenger evacuation aboard Flight 1549.

The evacuation was relatively orderly at the front of the jet, they said. At the rear where Welsh sat, the impact had been far more violent and the exits were unusable because they were below the river. Frigid water was filling the rear of the cabin.

"There was no doubt in my mind it was over," she said. "And I just went crazy and started yelling at people and pushing people and getting people to go over the seats."

"And as I was getting up I thought I might actually live," she said. "So my emotions had gone through, within seconds, accepting death and seeing life. It was unbelievable."

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